Sunbomber EP

Since their inception, Excepter have been the slipperiest of NYC's free/noise/improv acts, their murky evolutions making even the irregular careers arcs of such contemporaries as Black Dice or Liars seem comparatively linear. Throughout their work Excepter have shown a decided preference for the glancing blow, addressing their musical subjects from the most indirect angles possible, and rarely striking from the same direction twice. On the band's latest, the five-song EP Sunbomber, they demonstrate their most overt minimalist pop gestures yet. But in typical Excepter fashion, these tracks often seem less full-fledged songs than simply the bones and shadow of song, remnants left behind by their authors' cryptic scavenging.

Sunbomber is the first record by Excepter in their current incarnation as a quartet, with versatile noisemaker Jon Nicholson added to the fold. Gone are husband and wife duo Calder Martin and Caitlin Cook, and with them many of the more dilated, impenetrable fusions of 2004's KA or last year's Throne. This EP was reportedly recorded in one hour during the quartet's first performance together, and these slack, disorderly tracks make it easy to take such claims at face value. Although similar in construction to portions of their recent Self Destruction, here at least Excepter haven't the cheek to identify Sunbomber as house music. Scaffolded with fragile programmed beats and numberless blips and plinks, on Sunbomber the group use their spectral electronics to ferret out stubborn avant-pop melodies that aren't fully accustomed to this manner of rough treatment.

On opener "One More Try", ripples of synth and winds supply the birdcalls for Excepter's lo-fi, sun-stroked approximation of Martin Denny's exotica, before John Fell Ryan's unintelligible vocals stumble in like a derelict beachcomber and upset the tiki torches. Further garbled instructions are delivered on "Bridge Traffic", a track that combines twerpy atomized funk and jittery Eyewitness News keyboards to surprisingly attractive effect. The following "Dawn Patrol" maintains the set's steadiest rhythm-- laced through with a potent, whistling melody-- before opening into an impressive thicket of static and low-resolution drumbeats.

Despite its melodic flourishes, however, in many respects Sunbomber stands as Excepter's noisiest outing to date. The supple, reverberant figures of past triumphs like "Vacation" have here been replaced by textures considerably more ragged and jarring, particularly on the set closing mini-epic "The Sun Bomber". On this track and elsewhere, the listener might wish that more attention had been paid to the drum programming, as their limpid beats too often feel flabby and perfunctory. (Who knows, maybe they could spend two hours recording next time.) Yet as "The Sun Bomber" is quietly chewed to gristle between Excepter's slow-grinding jaws, one can't help but marvel at the group's inability to create commonplace music, and be drawn again into their well-camouflaged snares.